Blackface Not Meant as Slur, Ex-Officer Says

By BENJAMIN WEISER

Published: January 8, 2003

A former New York City police officer testified yesterday that he wore blackface on a Labor Day parade float in Queens in 1998 because he wanted to entertain people, make them laugh and win a trophy. He said he concluded that the float, called ''Black to the Future: 2098,'' was offensive only after he watched it later on television.

''We didn't want to offend anyone,'' said the former officer, Joseph Locurto. ''I believe it was wrong now that I've seen it the way everyone else did.''

Mr. Locurto, 35, and two former firefighters, Jonathan Walters and Robert Steiner, who were all fired for their roles in the parade, testified in a trial in United States District Court in Manhattan. All three have sued seeking reinstatement and contending that their dismissals were based on the content of their speech and violated their First Amendment rights.

Christopher Dunn, a lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represents Mr. Locurto, said in court that his client had been made a scapegoat.

Mr. Dunn said that Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had orchestrated the dismissals because he had been subjected to ''intense criticism for racial insensitivity,'' particularly over the Police Department's handling of the so-called Million Youth March in Harlem, which had taken place a few days before.

Mr. Giuliani, who is expected to testify in court today, sharply condemned the float at the time, and said of the officer, ''The only way this guy gets back on the police force is if the Supreme Court of the United States tells us to put him back.''

Howard Safir, the former police commissioner, and Thomas Von Essen, the former fire commissioner, are also expected to testify today.

In court, a lawyer for the city, Jonathan Pines, defended the firings, saying the men's actions, given the sensitivity of their work, would have proven disruptive. ''This was just such an appalling display of racial insensitivity,'' Mr. Pines said.

In his testimony, Mr. Locurto said he had used black lipstick to paint his face, and wore a black wig during the parade, in Broad Channel. The float also included tubs of fried chicken, and some participants threw watermelon slices to spectators, testimony showed.

Mr. Walters testified that he twice briefly hung to the back of the truck carrying the float to re-enact the killing of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Texas the previous June.

''Did you intend it to be racist?'' his lawyer, Michael N. Block, asked.

''No, sir,'' Mr. Walters replied.

Mr. Walters said the float was intended to parody the views of the mostly white Broad Channel community, and to show ''how foolish their stereotypes were.''

The judge, John E. Sprizzo, rejected the city's request for a verdict in its favor after Mr. Locurto's testimony, saying his responses seemed only to raise new First Amendment questions.

The judge, who is hearing the case without a jury, said at one point: ''Parody is protected by the First Amendment. This may be bad parody.'' He added, ''If the point is to make people laugh, then obviously it's protected by the First Amendment.''

Photo: Two former firefighters, Robert Steiner, left, and Jonathan Walters, far right, who were fired along with a police officer after participating in a 1998 Labor Day parade in Queens, left a Manhattan court yesterday. (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)